For some of you. I’ve kept you waiting… for others I’ve given you a break… but here it is my update!!!I’ve had trouble blogging and sending updates because I got a nasty virus in my computer so our family is sharing the 11 year old Pentium 2 400mhz with 8 gigabytes of Hard Drive. YEAH!!! (if any of you techies out there know how to reset the BIOS on an Acer 3000 notebook please send me an email… my computer guy is pulling his hair out).
… ).Prayer Requests:
The De Anda Family – Jaime and Mimi are dear friends to Wendy and I and to many brothers and sisters in Latin America… Mimi, who has been in bed for the past 18 months had surgery to fuse three vertebrae on May 30th. The neurosurgeon was pleased with the outcome of the 10 hour operation and Mimi is starting the process of recovering. Please pray for the De Anda’s, especially for Mimi’s speedy recovery.
The Orlando Church – My home town church is in the process of selecting a new Lead Evangelist. Please pray that God might guide the Elders in their decision making process. They have some awesome men of God to choose from… Let us pray that the man that they choose can lead the church to never seen before victories (Ef 3.20-21).
Ministry Stuff:
We had a couple of full months… 
Our Men’s Conference “HOMBRES FUERTES EN TIEMOS DE CRISIS” (Strong Men In Troubled Times). 400 men came out as Alex Paiz preached about how to find the needed strength to confront the crisis that men face every day… We were challenged to become men that will fight to keep our realtionships pure, our marriages faithful and our families united. Please pray that God may bless us with abundant fruit.
Jose Mario Ulloa, who leads the church in San Jose, Costa Rica, was in Guatemala for the weekend of May 6th .
He preached in our region and was with our son Matthew, a fellow Costa Rican, on his 8th birthday. It was great to spend time with a great friend and my soccer coach when we were leading the church in Costa Rica (although he won’t take credit for my shin busting technique, ouch!). After the Service Jorge Mendez was baptized.
During this past month I was also able to do a tribute tour to the missions of old… as I traved land, air and sea in order to visit the church in Belize and the Bible Talk in Puerto Barrios. While I was in Belize… I was able to preach at their Men’s Day, Fear Factor, afterwards Mr. Jerry was baptized. On Sunday the church celebrated Mother’s day… Angel Jimenez preached on Mary, mother of Jesus and afterwards Mrs. Marva was baptized. While I was in Puerto Barrios I was able to spend time José Coronado and the De la Roca family.
We also had a Congegational Worship Service “Primero el Reino” (The Kingdom First). God allowed 670 disciples to have 1200 in attendance. A few days before the service I went out to share my faith with a singles Bible Talk [Cell or small group]. As we finished praying, Charly, the brother I was sharing with turned to me and said, “it’s been two years since I’ve shared my faith… In an hour we had shared with 50 people nine of which gave us their phone numbers and three came out on Sunday! It is in these moments when Paul’s words ring so true…”For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’(Rom 1:17 ESV)”. We share out of faith, but as we see God work it increses our faith…
On May 30th I had the opportunity to give a class tho the Church in San José Costa Rica
through Video Conferencia. I was able to share a class on the purpose of church… 1) To praise God, 2) To reflect Jesus’ presence, 3) To announce the “Good News”, 4) To make disciples and 5) To reunite the believers. It was great to hear ans see loved brothers and sisters in San Jose. Plus my computer operator in Costa Rica was my son in the faith and fellow missionary ,Abdel Bachez, who was baptized here in Guatemala then left with us to plant the church in San Salvador, El Salvador and then again left with us to San José Costa Rica… there he got married and I settled down… what a treat.
Ellis Family News:
Those of you who saw The Mission Diaries videos might be interested to know that we got rid of our Ford AreoStar after four years of service and 32 calls to Road Side Asistance. When I called our Road Side Asistance to take the van off the list; they thanked me for selling the car and mentioned that in the past three years I had made 32 calls for the van, 27 to be towed…
The kids are good… the boys are out of school for the summer. May 25th was their last day of classes, we pick report cards up next week. Matthew won an award for perfect scripture memory (37 verses for the school year)! Steven had a great year after a difficult time last year with the switch from a Guatemalan to an American school system. CAG (Christian Academy of Guatemala) is a school built to serve the missionary community in Guatemala. If you can spare a year you might consider comming down to teach as a missionary teacher. For more information check out their web site. If you would like to sponsor a scolarship for one of my kids, please send an email to me for details on how you could do that.
Extracurriculars… Steven is now a Yellow belt in Karate and just began studying the Bible… He also plays the guitar and is begining to get involved in the teen ministry’s band… Matthew is learning music at the National Conservatory for Music… Right now they’re matching the smaller kids with instruments, Matt is in classes for Violin and Piano. Angie is doing gymnastics. Last week her coach asked us if she could train daily in order to prepare her for the Junior National team…
Money Matters:
We are still in need of sponsors… After having our home flooded twice by raw sewage in the past eighteen months our financial situation has been very difficult. To cover clean-up expenses and replace food items that had to be destroyed we put a total of $7000 on a credit card. The intrest payment alone represents 25% of our monthly income which has forced us to consistantly fall behind on payments. Presently we are facing about $8000 total debt and need to find a way to pay it off in order to make end meet. If you are thinking about giving to foreign missions please think about our family.
Future Projects:
Teaching ministry: Presently I am running a small Bible school here in Guatemala and am looking for ways to expand its influence through the World Wide Web. My notes on Apocalipsis are now being posted at http://www.pergaminos.wordpress.com/. I would also like to return to seminary and finish my B.A. in Bible (I’m one year through the four year program) at SETECA. If you would like to sponsor my studies the cost is aprox. $2500 a year.
Communications: I hope to continue blogging and better the use of the internet and other means of communication. If you would like to contribute the yearly cost is about $150 a year for hosting and $350 a year for an internet based video conference system with the goal of bettering communication between the churches in the US and Central America.
If you would like to make a donation you can do that through http://www.paypal.com/
